The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-22
The Sunday School.
LESSON FOR JANUARY 80. 1887.
BY REV. ROBERT 7. POLK.
THE CALL OF ABRAM.
[Genesis xii. 1-9.]
The DIVINE CALL.

THE DIVINE GALL,
The earth was reinhabited after the Deluge
by the descendants of the three sons of
Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth. These are
respectively the heads of the three chief
races of man, the Asiatic, African and Euro
mean. The other two included in the COM
mon classification of the races are but eli
matte and physiological notifications of
these. The ark rested on Mount Ararat, IN the
highlands of Armenia, in northwestern Asia,
whence the earth was repopulated. The de-
scendants of the three families of the sons of
Noah distributed themselves over the earth
in three zones or belts of territory. The
Shemitee inhabited the middle belt, includ-
ing principally the countries of Asia. The
Hamites occupied the southern zone, and in
habited the principal countries of Africa.
The descendants of Japheth dwelt III the
northern regions, and furnished the chief
population of the countries of Europe. The
modern discoveries of science, the facts of
ethnology and comparative philology tend
to confirm the Biblical account of the divis-
ion and enlargement of the Noachic families.
The purpose of the Book of Genesis is not to
record a history of the world, but to describe
the beginnings of the history of the kingdom
of COP, the Divinely chosen and Providen-
TALLY guided kingdom of Israel. The disper-
sion of the descendants of the sons of Noah,
their growth into numerous families, and the
rise of nations, to the time when the worship
of the one only true COP was corrupted and
debased by forms of worship which changed
A. IL of 4ha toll Mt inn
of created things, of mortal beings and shin
ing orbs, is briefly described in the Mosaic
account. The sons of Japheth are described
as those from whom the ISLANDS of the ma
tons" were populated, meaning the islands
and coast-lands of the Mediterranean, from
Asia Minor to Spain (Gaul, Gomez. The
genealogy OF Ham is given through three
generations to Nimrod, noting the rise of
Babylon and Egypt, and describing the land
of Canaan. The descendants of Shem are
traced through ten generations to Abram,
the father of the Hebrew race, the chosen
'people of GoD." Persia, Assyria and Chal-
dea were founded by this family. In all the
more powerful and influential kingdoms
were developed forms of idolatrous worship.
The mighty rulers were doubtless worshiped
as gods. In Babylon and Chaldea, especial
ly, the heavenly bodies and representative
images, including fire, were objects of wor-
ship.
In accomplishing the purposes of GoD the
idolatrous nations were not to be destroyed,
as were the wicked antediluvians; but, for
the preservation of true worship and the pro-
motion of holiness of heart and life among
mankind and its consequent blessedness, GOD
would raise up in the midst of these worldly
developed nations, nation for himself,
founded in genuine religious faith and wor-
ship, whose ruler He would become, and to
whom He would give laws and institutions,
and in whose history He might reveal Him
self as the rightful Ruler among the nations,
and finally as the Father in heaven.
Abram, known as Abraham in Israelitish
history, was divinely called to be the founder
of this holy nation. He was born in Chaldea,
B. G. 1896, and brought up in the midst of
idolatry, familiar, no doubt, from his earli-
est childhood with forms of idolatrous wor-
ship. His fathers name was Terah. He
had two brothers, Haran and Major. Haran
died before his father, leaving two daughters
became the wives of their uncles. Abrams
wife was Sarah, thought to be the same as
Iscah. The family of Terah removed from
Or, the place of their nativity, to Haran, in
lower Mesopotamia, at the junction of the
two great caravan rontes to the fords of the
Euphrates and the Tigris. Just how and
when Abram received the Divine call to leave
the land of his kindred and the home of his
father, to go into an unknown land, is not
quite clear from the record. From the ac-
count of Moses and the passage in our Les
son, it would seem that the call came to him
at Haran. Why Terah and his family re-
moved from Ur to Haran is not disclosed.
Certainly Abram did not then separate him.
self from his kindred, or, indeed, leave the
country of his nativity, if, as we think, Ur of
the Chaldees is identical with Urfah or Orfah,
few miles only to the north of Haran. But
Stephen declared to the Jews: "GoD APP
peared unto our father Abraham before he
dwelt in Haran, and said unto him, Get thee
out of thy land, and come unto the land
which shall show thee" Acts vii. A.. Know
ing the wonderful history of the Jewish peo-
pie and their father Abraham, Stephen may
have seen and recognized the Divine provi-
dence and guidance in it all, and declared its
beginning to have been in the first removal
from Ur. Moses having seen and recognized
the same things in the gracious providence of
GOD with his people, may have interpreted
the departure from Haran as the call of GoD
into the country that should be shown him.
That he determined to leave his home and
kindred to promote the worship of the true
COP, and trusted that favorable opportuni-
ty would be afforded, with all the results of
that determination, is sufficient evidence of
Cons call to Abraham, however and when
ever it may have occurred. Adherence of,
and separation from idolatry had, no doubt,
become the fixed passion of his soul. The
favorable opportunity was the call of GOD.
The promptings of his passionately pious soul
was the voice he heard. "His migration was
his mission" Every young man is called of
GoD who, with soul stirred with noble
purpose, goes forth into the world to work
out for himself and humanity, under GoD,
some high and hoped for achievement.
The PROMISE.
The Divine promise to Abram was that he